The Return
by buggleston
Summary: My version of how Stalag 13 gained a demolitions expert. My first story! Revised and reposted to correct a canon inconsistency.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: The only characters that are mine are Captain Tom Bowers and Captain Bobby Martin. Chapter revised to address a canon inconsistency._

**Chapter 1 - Escape from the Oflag**

Captain Bowers came to my bunk in the dead of night and shook me by the shoulder.

"Lieutenant? Lieutenant!"

I finally awoke enough to answer, "Sir?"

"Tomorrow night you'll leave for the first leg of your trip. See me in my office after morning roll call and I'll give you the details."

"Yes, sir." Boy, I sure wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep after that!

The next morning I knocked on the Captain's door, wondering where all of this would lead. The Captain opened the door and directed me to a seat before his desk. I pulled out the chair in front of the Captain's desk and sat down. Captain Bowers handed me a nondescript looking package.

"Here's your map and light. You must have this memorized by this evening."

I hesitated a bit before I stammered out, "I don't know, sir..."

"You having second thoughts, Lieutenant?"

"No, sir, it's just that under pressure like this I'm afraid of making mistakes," I confessed.

"It's a direct route so you should have no problems if you follow the map. Be ready to go after lights out, say around 2150 hours. Now take the map and flashlight and head back to your barracks. Begin to memorize the map."

"Yes, sir." I put the map and light securely within my jacket and nodded. I arose, saluted the Captain and headed back to my barracks. Once there, I dropped onto my bunk and began studying the map.

A few minutes before evening roll call, I had to somehow release the pent up tension and anxiety I felt, so I began pacing back and forth across the barracks' wooden floor.

"Settle down, Lieutenant," implored Sergeant Mallory, as he sat playing poker. I nodded and sat back down on my bunk, awaiting the call to Appel.

The moment finally arrived and after lights out, I quickly headed for the tunnel so as to be in position when the diversion began. As I crawled into the tunnel I chuckled a bit, as I knew the fellas would enjoy this diversion.

When I reached the end of the tunnel, the noise began so that meant I only had a split second to climb up out of the tunnel and make a dash for the woods at full speed. Captain Bowers' words kept ringing in my ears - _you must head straight and stay on time - stay on time!_ The voice stayed within my head while I ran the eight miles to where I would meet my next contact. I made it and hid in the bushes until a man named Olsen literally stumbled upon me. He got up and spoke urgently.

"Lieutenant Carter?"

"Yes," I acknowledged.

"Good. You're exactly where you should be." Olsen looked around then turned back to me. "Give me your jacket." We quickly exchanged clothing. The Sergeant explained that I was to get back into another prison camp.

I was confused and began to protest, "But you know how hard it was to escape from the other camp..."

Olsen answered and continued to outline the plan as the dogs ran up, barking their heads off. I was amazed as Olsen quieted them down and they waited for his command. He turned back to me as he prepared to leave.

"Stay here, they won't hurt you."

That was the last I saw of Olsen as he took off and the dogs began barking again. Sirens wailed and the searchlights glared on me as I raised my hands in surrender. Guards came racing up to me and prodded me the quarter-mile to the new camp.

After I was marched through the gate into the camp a fat guard approached and dismissed the guards who had captured me. I thought for sure he was going to herd me straight to the Kommandant's office, but he waited for the other guards to get some distance away before he turned to look closely at me, while shaking his head sadly. He murmured, "Wo bist du Olsen? Ach du lieber!"

He then gestured to me and said, "Come with me, schnell!" I lowered my arms and did as he said. As I followed this big guard, who the other guard had called "Schultz", I thought about how he reminded me of a big, cuddly teddy bear I had when I was a kid. Schultz remained silent as he led me to a barracks building with a sign that read "Barracks Two". He opened the door, stuck his head in and called, "Colonel Hogan!" before we both entered the barracks.

_What?_ I thought to myself. Why was an officer of such a high rank in a non-com POW camp? The door of the commander's quarters opened and a full Colonel came out. He was tall with dark hair and wore his crush cap at a jaunty angle on the back of his head.

"Yes, Schultz?" He zeroed in on me immediately.

"This man was captured outside the wire. Now, where is Olsen…," Schultz stopped suddenly as he had made a quick count of the men in the barracks and noticed that Olsen was nowhere to be seen. He turned to the Colonel, obviously panicked.

"Colonel Hogan...where is Olsen? Please, Colonel Hogan! You told me at roll call that he would come back!"

"He's not here yet, Schultz. He'll come back when the Lieutenant here is ready." The Colonel casually strolled over to the German guard and wrapped his arm around his shoulders as he said, "Listen, Schultz, just tell the Kommandant that you recaptured Olsen and you've put him in the cooler for 30 days. That should satisfy old blood and guts."

Schultz acted as if he hadn't heard the Colonel's last suggestion as his eyes went vacant. "R-Ready? Ready for what? No! Do not tell me! I see noth-ing! I know noth-ing!" Schultz hurried out the door without a backward glance, apparently forgetting all about me.

That was some nifty by-play which proved to me that this Colonel was a real pro at fooling the guards, although with Schultz it didn't appear to take much doing. I tucked that thought in the back of my head as I looked around; I was curious as to how I would be getting out. I suddenly remembered I was in the presence of a Colonel, so I came to attention, saluted and gave him my full name and serial number.

"Glad to have you here, Lieutenant Carter," said the Colonel. "Please step into my office."

"Yes, sir!" I followed him into his quarters and again came to full attention.

"At ease." The Colonel closed the door and gestured to a chair in front of his desk. "Have a seat."

I was intrigued as he explained the details of my processing and how I would be smuggled out of Germany back to England. Afterwards, he took me back into the common room and assigned me a temporary bunk so I could get some shuteye.

* * *

Later the next day I found myself standing on a stool feeling like a human pincushion as the Russian POW Sam finished measuring me for a set of civilian clothes.

As I stood there I could tell the Colonel had something important on his mind. It seems that a new guy had been brought in, but I noticed that he was being treated much differently than me. It looked to me like the Colonel had some suspicions about him, but when I had spoken to him earlier he seemed to be just one of the guys.

The suit-making sessions continued and once completed the Colonel pulled a map out and laid it out onto his desk. As Kinch worked on the coffee pot, the Colonel showed me the next leg of my route back home. I wondered why the Colonel was so interested in a simple coffee pot until Kinch explained that they used it to listen in to Klink's bugged office. He plugged it in and voices began to come from it.

What I heard really floored me! The new guy was a German spy! OH JEEZE...I had told him about the operation, how they were getting me out of the camp and back to England. OH JEEZE!

I swallowed hard and told the Colonel I was the one who spilled the beans. Corporal Newkirk stepped up and took the blame, as I had been sleeping when he was spreading the word not to talk to the new guy.

As the guys continued to get me ready to leave, the Colonel formulated a plan to get rid of the spy and use it as a diversion to get me out of the camp via truck. After they finished with me, they stashed me down in the tunnels until it was time for me to go. I stood close by the radio room and overheard the Colonel talking to Kinch, LeBeau and Newkirk.

I found out that London wanted them to begin sabotage missions against the Germans. When the Colonel mentioned that they needed a demolitions man to join the team, my ears perked up.

As their conversation ended, I started formulating a plan of my own. The next morning, Olsen returned, the spy was exposed as a fraud and I was in the back of a truck taking the next leg of my journey.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - An Unexpected Loss**

Back at Stalag 13, things were slowly settling down. The spy Wagner had been taken away by Colonel Burkhalter. Lieutenant Carter was safely on his way back to England in the back of Schnitzer's truck. And most importantly of all (to Schultz' great delight), Olsen was back in the line where he belonged at the evening roll call. The prisoners were dismissed and Schultz herded them back into the barracks, all the while clucking at them like a mother hen.

After evening mess, Colonel Hogan and his command team gathered in the officer's quarters to discuss several items of importance; namely, London's request to begin sabotage operations followed by who would be a suitable addition to the core team. The Colonel listened intently as each of his men expressed their opinions, most of them dwelling on this dangerous new development instead of suggesting suitable men for addition to the team. He stifled a yawn and nodded his acknowledgement of their concerns before he spoke.

"Let's sleep on this, guys. We'll get back together tomorrow and I'll let you know something definite then, okay?"

Everyone nodded and shuffled out; that is, except for Corporal Newkirk, who hung back just inside the doorway. He wanted to make a suggestion but didn't quite know how to begin.

"Is there anything else, Newkirk?" asked Hogan.

"Well, sir, we didn't really talk much about the new fellow...," he trailed off.

"No, I think everyone's more concerned with the prospect of sabotage right now," replied the Colonel.

Newkirk nodded and then said, "I was just thinkin' that Dominik Kowalski from Barracks 8 is a pretty good chap; we get along well together. 'e's also a fair 'and with explosives and such."

"Thanks, Newkirk, I'll keep that in mind. Why don't you hit the sack? We've had a busy day today."

Newkirk chuckled, "To say the least, sir. Good night!"

The Colonel moved to the window, crossing his arms across his chest as he contemplated Newkirk's suggestion. Leave it to the RAF Corporal to drill down to the important point; that is, whomever he chose to join the core group must not only know his explosives but he must also be able to interact successfully with Newkirk himself.

Unfortunately, Stalag 13's prisoner complement was extremely limited on men with explosives experience. Kowalski seemed like the only option right now.

He finally allowed a full yawn and got ready to turn in, chuckling as an almost idle thought crossed his mind. That last escapee, what was his name? Oh right, Lieutenant Carter. He had seemed to mesh well with his command team during his exceptionally brief time with them. Would it be worthwhile to try to track him down?

He shook his head as he climbed into the upper bunk. _Well, I'll take my own advice to just sleep on it and see what happens._ He had only been asleep for an hour or so when he was jolted awake by the furious barking of the dogs, shortly followed by the non-stop blaring of the alarm bells.

_What now?_ thought Hogan, as he jumped to the floor and pulled on his robe. He pulled his window open just enough to see what was going on in the compound. Several trucks and an ominous-looking staff car pulled to a halt in front of the Kommandatur.

Klink busily wrapped his own robe about himself as he hurried over to address his unexpected visitors, who did not wait for his permission to invade the barracks. They burst through the door of Barracks Two just as the Colonel came into the common room.

"Kommandant, what's going on here?" he shouted as SS guards pulled Vladimir Minsk and Edward Jankowski out of their bunks and tossed them outside without even giving them a chance to dress.

"Hogan, all you need to know is that this is a sweep of all prisoner of war camps by the SS," answered Klink.

"This is in direct violation of the Geneva Convention, Kommandant! I will file a formal protest with the protecting powers!"

Klink shook his head. "No, Hogan. The Geneva Convention does not apply in this case. I do not have time to argue with you, I must keep up with the SS men. Lights out! Schultz, see that they all get back into their bunks!"

Newkirk, Kinch and LeBeau all crowded around the door in an effort to see what was going on. Newkirk reported, "They're going into all of the barracks! They just threw Dominik Kowalksi and Danill Makarov into the back of one of the lorries!"

"That's it; they just marched Jakub Lewandowski out of Barracks 3. It looks like they're taking all of the Russians and Poles," said Kinch. Schultz chose that moment to obey Klink's order to get the prisoners back into their bunks. He blocked the doorway and herded the men back inside.

"Boys, you heard the Kommandant. Back to bed. Lights out."

The men, shocked and dismayed by what they had seen, resisted the German guard's efforts to get them back to their bunks. Schultz looked over at the Colonel as he tried again.

"Back to bed! Newkirk! Get up in your bunk!"

"All right, men. Let's get the lights out and get back to bed," ordered the Colonel.

"But, sir...," protested Newkirk.

"There's nothing we can do tonight but get back to bed. But rest assured I am going to have a serious talk with the Kommandant first thing tomorrow morning! Now, come on! Get to bed!"

"Thank you, Colonel," said Schultz. He looked about the room at each of the prisoners and said, "I am sorry this happened, but you simply do not argue with the SS."

Hogan nodded and put a hand on the German guard's shoulder. "I know, Schultz, I know. Good night."

Schultz left and the men climbed back into their bunks, although no one would be getting back to sleep. That included the Colonel, who spent the rest of the night pacing his quarters.

* * *

The next morning, it was a deeply dispirited group of prisoners that returned to their various barracks after roll call. As Klink had not been forthcoming with any information about the previous night's activities, Hogan headed straight for the Kommandant's office where he barged in unannounced to demand answers.

"Kommandant, I want some answers...," he angrily began.

Klink cut the American Colonel off in mid-sentence, "Hogan, the SS were carrying out orders which came directly from Reichsführer Himmler. Every stalag was searched, with all Russian and Polish prisoners removed to populate separate camps. I will say this only once, and there will be no further discussion! I had absolutely no choice in this matter!"

Hogan stood silent, his jaw clenched tightly. The German Colonel looked his American counterpart in the eye and murmured, "I am sorry, Hogan. I would have kept your men here if I could have." He looked back down at his desk. "You are dismissed."

Hogan remained a moment longer, silently weighing his options. He then returned Klink's salute and left. Even he realized that at this point, there was simply nothing he could do for the men taken by the SS. Nothing, that is, other than to contact London to inform them of what happened and to request they send him a demolitions expert for his team.


End file.
